


And the Rain Came Tumbling Down

by Bralatine



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Baby Luke Skywalker, Dark Obi-Wan Kenobi, F/M, Palpatine - Freeform, Post-Order 66 (Star Wars), Revenge of the Sith, Satine Kryze Lives, Sith Obi-Wan Kenobi, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:49:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26885407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bralatine/pseuds/Bralatine
Summary: Satine Kryze may have survived the destruction of Mandalore, but she couldn't fathom the tragedy that awaited her - and the rest of the galaxy - in the months to come. The rise of a new empire, the death of a friend . . . but nothing could be more unexpected than the man who stood before her now, with a sleeping baby in his arms and staring at her with Sith-gold eyes.
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi/Satine Kryze
Comments: 17
Kudos: 132





	And the Rain Came Tumbling Down

**Author's Note:**

> This pure piece of angst is the fault of the Nonnie who messaged me an unsolicited prompt that read "Satine being scared of Obi-wan." 
> 
> I kind of recoiled, and didn't think that I'd be able to make good on that request, because I couldn't fathom a situation where such a thing would be possible, nor did I really want to entertain it.
> 
> But it was already lodged in my mind, and then *this* happened.
> 
> Thanks, Nonnie. You've pushed even *me* to explore the depths of my angst-capacity!

Through the window of the darkened apartment, the lights of Coruscant looked streaky in the pouring rain. The colors blurred together like paint dribbling down a canvas, and nothing seemed concrete anymore.

Satine chewed on her thumbnail, her hands shaking like the rest of her. Mandalore had fallen around her only months earlier. Now, it was happening again.

She'd missed Obi-Wan—thank the Force he was alive—when he'd stopped by earlier. She'd missed Padmé's departure too, but she'd left a hastily recorded holo-message for her. About how she'd gone to find Anakin, about how Obi-Wan had said that he'd done terrible things, how he'd gone to the dark side. Satine hadn't believed it. Anakin Skywalker was reckless and far too adept and comfortable with violence for her own liking, but he loved his wife and his unborn baby and Obi-Wan far too much for that to be possible. It couldn't be possible.

But then Padmé's recording said that Palpatine was behind everything, and Satine believed it. She'd never liked the man. Not when she'd had to plead for him to recognize Mandalore's neutrality. Not when he'd refused to renew discussions about opening the trade routes around her system. And certainly not earlier that day, when she'd stood next to Bail and Padmé as the shriveled man proclaimed the Jedi traitors to the Republic and himself the new galactic emperor.

She'd been a staunch supporter of the autonomy of individual systems. Now even that was just another broken dream, washed down the pouring rain.

The downpour came harder now; the rain pelting the Coruscant skyline echoed around her and enveloped her in its static roar. She felt she was utterly alone and drowning in a vast expanse of nothingness. The Jedi had been massacred by the clones meant to protect the Republic, which was crumbling around itself as surely as Sundari already had. She still didn't know where Korkie was; she hoped that he was alright, that he was with Bo, but she didn't know if she were alive either. She didn't know where Padmé was, or Obi-Wan, and all she could do was sit and wait. She dropped to the settee as her stomach clenched painfully, and she sucked several breaths that didn't seem to reach past her lungs.

Breathe.

Qui-Gon had taught her long ago.

Breathe.

_I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me._

Breathe. Breathe.

She sensed the presence behind her the instant before a cold hand touched her shoulder. She gasped and jumped, whirling around and pulling the deactivator from her hip.

"Satine."

The figure was obscured by the heavy robe, but even in the darkness, the voice—unusually flat and heavy—was unmistakable.

"Obi-Wan." She dropped the deactivator and moved toward him. He was alive.

He was alive.

A crackle of lightning lit the apartment for a second and Satine noticed that his robe was wet. His parked speeder confirmed that he'd come in through the balcony. But more importantly, he was hunched over, as if hurt or in immense pain.

She frowned. "Ben?"

She looked to him, but Obi-Wan's face was shrouded by the hood of his robe.

"Padmé's dead," he said. "Anakin, too."

"Oh, Obi-Wan." A fist to the stomach would have hurt less. "And the baby?"

Obi-Wan straightened to reveal a tiny bundle, hidden beneath his robes.

"Bab _ies_ ," he said. "Two. Leia—" he adjusted the bundle and Satine caught sight of a tiny sleeping face, "—and Luke."

"Oh," Satine breathed. She instinctually moved forward to take the baby—the child of the woman she considered a sister—but Obi-Wan stiffened and pulled back.

"Obi-Wan?" Satine asked in confusion. Even in grief, something seemed off. "What is it?"

He looked down at the child and smoothed the blanket so that more of his face was visible. The tiny nose scrunched in annoyance at the chill in the air and the disturbance of his sleep.

"I have to go."

"Where? What do you mean?"

"Palpatine is the Sith Lord we've been looking for."

"I know. Padmé told me."

"Bail Organa is taking Leia to Alderaan. Palpatine will be coming for the babies. They are a threat to him."

How two tiny infants could be a threat to the man who just declared authority over the entire galaxy was beyond Satine's comprehension. But she didn't question Palpatine's cruelty. Satine looked down at Luke again. "Then we'll go away with Luke. Where Palpatine can't find us."

She placed a hand on Obi-Wan's chest, the heavy robe soaked from the rain. Still cradling the child in the crook of his arm, he took her hand in his free one. He pressed his lips to her fingers and then to her palm and wrist. Satine shivered as his cold kisses met her skin.

"Yes," he said, softly. "You will. But not for long."

"What do you mean?" she asked uneasily, wondering why his touches filled her with such dread?

"I'm sending you to Tatooine. To Anakin's family. You'll be safe there."

"Where are you be?"

"I have a job to do," he said with solemn monotony.

Satine's chest clenched in apprehension. "Obi-Wan?"

Obi-Wan kissed her fingers once more and then let go of her hand. "The Chancellor is mad, Satine. He has destroyed everything. The Jedi are gone. I can't change that. But he must be stopped if we are to save any semblance of the Republic."

Satine's heart dropped to the lowest depths of Coruscant. "Obi-Wan, no."

"I have to. There is no other way. Surely, even _you_ can see that."

She could see that. She really could. But no matter what, this was not the way.

"Obi, you can't. This isn't right. This isn't you."

He huffed a harsh, cynical sound. "You're right. I'm not me. What am I, without the Jedi?"

"You're a good man," she said resolutely. She closed the distance between them and grasped his face in her hands. "You're a good man, and I love you."

She leaned over the baby and desperately pressed her lips to his, as if she could anchor him to the light. This was not the man she fell in love with. This was not right.

"Please," she whispered. She ran her hands over his beard, which she'd come to love, even if she'd never tell him so. His lips, which she hadn't touched in nearly twenty years. She pushed his hood back to look into his face, and with another flash of lightning, she was met with a pair of yellow eyes that stared into her soul.

She pulled away in shock. And he gave a mirthless smirk.

"I love you, Satine. I love you, but you're a fool."

Satine gaped at him.

"No."

Obi-Wan moved toward her. Satine countered and backed up several steps.

"He is a fool who repeats the same action and expects different results. Or in this case ... _she_."

The barb lodged itself deep.

"I figured even you could see that pacifism will not solve this. Look what happened to Mandalore. Look at what nearly happened to you."

She backed up further but was impeded by the backrest of the heavy settee behind her.

"I won't let that happen again. Not to you. Not to the galaxy." He stood before her and pushed Padmé and Anakin's child into her arms. "And not to him."

Satine had found herself under the eyes of a Sith once before. Now, another bore the face of the man she loved. She couldn't stand beneath his stare. She looked down at the baby instead.

Obi-Wan moved to her side, following her gaze. He snaked an arm around her waist, and his soft voice tickled her ear. "Trillions of lives have been lost. The Jedi have been slaughtered. This war is the reason you lost Mandalore. We've all been betrayed. But now we know who has been behind it all. We can end this evil before it continues. This isn't wanton violence, Satine. This is justice."

It sounded so reasonable. So why did it cause the black knot in her stomach to tighten and grow? And if the words were reasonable, why did they require the yellow eyes of the Sith in order to say them?

The voice of her nightmares—soft and aristocratic and accompanied by a red, horned face—whispered, " _Revenge . . ._ "

She shuddered.

"It may be justice," she said, softly, daring to look into his yellow eyes again. "But it isn't yours to mete out. Not with such hate in your heart."

Obi-Wan's voice became a snarl, a sound that Satine had never heard before. "If you won't fight for what Palpatine took from you, then I will fight for what he took from me. My purpose, my family . . . my brother."

"There's no need to fight for them, Obi-Wan," she said, her heart breaking for him. "They're already gone."

Obi-Wan's arm tightened around her. A flash—filled with hardness and bitterness—filled Obi-Wan's eyes, and for an instant, Satine was truly scared. Scared of the man she considered the kindest and most honorable in the galaxy. She tightened her hold around the baby in her arms, and Luke gave a little whimper as he was disturbed. At the sound, Obi-Wan's face slackened, his features returning to a more genial expression. His lips quirked with a hint of a smile, but his possessive arm never moved.

"Oh, my dove," he said to her, reaching to caress her cheek. "Everything is always so simple to you. Too simple. But after this is done, we could have a new life. One where we don't have to hide. And together, we can rebuild the Republic. We will rule together. A world of peace and goodness. Just like you want."

He moved his hand to rest on Luke's downy head.

"And we will be a family. Our second chance." He leaned in, his nose nuzzling her cheek. Satine tensed, and when she shut her eyes, she felt tears trail down her face. "I will finish this, and you will have everything that you ever wanted. _Everything_ that I couldn't give you before."

She stared straight ahead. The yellow eyes upon her clearly wanted a response, but for her shock and horror and grief, she could say nothing. He was offering her everything, but he couldn't see how her world crumbled around her.

He paused for a long moment, but when he realized that no response was coming, he kissed her gently on the cheek, gave one last look to the baby, and stalked toward his speeder.

"Ben."

Satine found her voice just before he reached the water-logged balcony. He turned, his Sith-gold eyes gleaming in the streaking lights of Coruscant.

"If you do this, you won't come back to me," she said, resignation in her voice. "Not whole."

It was not the answer he wanted, she knew. His body stiffened, but not in anger. It was as if he were accepting a challenge, a vow to prove her wrong.

And it was then that she knew he was truly lost.

Because in that arrogance, she saw Anakin Skywalker, a man who had seemed so antithetical to her beloved. The padawan who seemed so unlike his master. Perhaps they weren't as different as they'd looked.

Obi-Wan said in an unshaking voice "I will do what must be done." He raised his hood over his head and turned towards his speeder.

And Satine took it as "good-bye."

She watched until the lights of his vehicle were indistinguishable from all of the other lights of Coruscant.

The rain washed away any belief that she had ever known him at all, but one thing was absolutely clear. It wasn't for lack of love that Anakin Skywalker had fallen to the dark side. And it wasn't for the abundance of love she had for Obi-Wan Kenobi that would keep him from doing the same.

Satine cradled the sleeping baby to her heart and felt completely and utterly alone.


End file.
